Hello, my name is Nyxie, my pronouns are She/They, I’m an Artist and Photographer in the Kansas City area, and soon it'll be March 8th, 2026, and I’ll be 35.

And what I want for my birthday… is a new life.

The short version: I’m $35k in credit card debt after a long, disaster filled life, and I’m trying to start anew and move to Baltimore.

If you want the long version, read on.

My story starts in a small town in West Virginia, I lived there for about 25 years, there wasn’t much to do, I hadn’t realized I was trans yet, and because of that I made a lot of bad mistakes, tried to fill the holes in my heart with either hobbies or career changes…all in all just chasing the high so I wouldn’t think about where I lived and how I felt, I racked up credit card debt as that was how I filled the void instead of drugs or thrill seeking, I didn’t feel like I’d live long enough that it would matter so, what's $10k on credit cards, right?

That changed in 2015 when I met my partner and after deciding on it, I moved to the Kansas City area in January 2016. I bounced from job to job, nothing really fit right, everything felt wrong…the pandemic happened…I ended up going further into debt. We had to pay rent on a newly cleared credit card, I went to school for IT and basically got ripped off for a cert that didn’t help me any, so it ballooned, we did what we had to survive, but I buried us…I burned out of IT, eventually went back to an old job and transitioned in June of 2024. I knew what was coming, I didn’t care, finally I felt alive, the holes in my heart were finally being filled. Since then I've traveled, I've made art, I've found wonderful friendships and community, I've even had some of my photographs in shows... My lifes finally looking up.

That brings us up to today, Kansas has just enacted a heinous bathroom ban and invalidated drivers licenses and documents of trans people, I do live on the Missouri side, but state line is only a mile away, we go to Kansas to grocery shop, play tabletop games, see friends…my partner even works over there.

I don’t feel like I have the time to figure out my debts on my own, I feel like worse is coming, and I need to relocate to a state that is safer than one right next to one of the worst places for trans people. I want to move to Baltimore, Maryland and be around the people who want to create with me and support me.

I have community and friends there, and possibly even some work opportunities, but I don’t want my old life to keep dragging my new life down. My debt ballooned after I moved the first time and I do not wish to commit the same mistakes.

I’m an artist, I’m a photographer, my specialty is queer portraiture and alternative fashion and lifestyle portraits. I'm just starting, but I know it's my calling and my talent. I want to work towards that dream without my old mistakes hindering me.

I want to move, I want to be with friends and community and truly feel safe, I want to run a queer photography studio and make art with others. I cannot do that with my old debts tying me down to Missouri.

So I am asking today for help, from my community, from my friends, from strangers…to give me a chance to live the life I was denied through youthful idiocy and the pain of dysphoria.

I am $35,000 in debt on various credit cards and loans, all with high interest rates that take the majority of my paycheck, even if I moved tomorrow I would be unable to sustain my life and pay off these debts, I would get behind, and then it would get worse.

If we reach the first goal of $8k, that will take care of $400/month in debt I am currently paying, and will let me start actually planning the move, the rest will come later, I hope.

I hope you can find it in you to donate, but I understand if not, I am at the mercy of everyone's kindness.

Thank you, truly.

-Nyxie.